The use of centrifuges to extract liquid is well known. In the field of vegetable processing, driers with rotatably mounted drums having perforate walls have been used to centrifugally dry vegetables prior to packing. Such known devices have generally been ergonomically inefficient in terms of filling and emptying.
The background art includes a perforate open-ended cylinder adapted to be rotated about its longitudinal axis. Also mounted for rotation with the cylinder is a circular disk disposed intermediate to the ends of the cylinder in a plane normal to the axis of the cylinder such that an annular gap is defined between the periphery of the disk and the cylinder's inner wall. In use, the cylinder axis is oriented on an incline and produce is gravity fed through the upper open end of the rotating cylinder and strikes the rotating cylinder. Due to the rotation of the cylinder the produce is centrifugally held against the wall and is layered along the cylinder wall until the capacity of the cylinder is reached, as typically indicated by the produce reaching a predetermined level in the drier. During the filling and drying stages of the drier cycle excess water is centrifugally drained through the perforations in the cylinder wall. The cylinder is then decelerated and produce falls through the lower open end of the cylinder.
When filling the cylinder it is important that the cylinder be loaded to the optimum weight of material to be dried. Under-filling the cylinder relative to the optimum weight results in lower throughput per cycle while over-filling will lead to inefficient drying and potentially longer drying times and may cause instability of the cylinder on its mounts and could result in damage of the drier.